The 1996 Welfare Reform Act offers welfare recipients a "window of opportunity," according to Olivia Golden, assistant secretary for children and families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Golden delivered her lecture, "Making History: New Directions in Welfare Reform," to a 30-member audience at the Rockefeller Center on Friday.
She focused the lecture on the course of her career, the Head Start program and the positive impacts of what is popularly known as the Welfare Reform Act of 1996.
The act, signed by President Bill Clinton in August 1996, on the 29th anniversary of former president Lyndon B. Johnson's signing of the original legislation, was touted as a plan that would revolutionize the nation's welfare system. It places a five-year time limit on welfare assistance.
Golden attained her current status as the assistant secretary in 1996, after many people had left the department as a protest to Clinton's signing the Act.
The former Harvard University Kennedy School of Government professor attributed her political success to three doctrines: that she believes in the importance of government, that there are many ways to "make a difference" and that "all experiences can make a difference." She called herself "an optimist in general."
According to Golden, two things came together to make 1996 the "right year" for reform: a strong economy and recent empirical evidence from "hard scientists" that environment plays a large role in the development of toddlers.
The Head Start program benefited from these changes, Golden said. She has been intimately involved in the Head Start Program ever since she joined the Clinton administration in 1993. Head Start provides assistance to working families and emphasizes child care development.
Golden outlined the major tenets of the Reform Act. The legislation transfers the federal framework for programs into block grants to states. States may then decide how to spend this money.
In addition, the act "focuses on work" and temporary welfare, Golden said. She did emphasize that although there is a five-year time limit on benefits, 20 percent of families in any given state can be exempted.
Finally, the act distributes about $200 million to states in the form of a so-called "High Performance Bonus." The question, however, is what to reward, Golden said.
According to Golden, welfare reform has resulted in many positive benefits. She cited as an example a "close to 30 percent decline in welfare loads," spurred in part by the threat of state penalties. Also, she said, instances of foster care and homelessness have not increased, and states have not engaged in what welfare activists had feared would be a "race to the bottom."
The most significant changes, however, were the perceptual changes. These changes "create all sorts of opportunities for welfare recipients," Golden said.
"The image that people have of people on welfare has changed. [Non-welfare recipients] are more willing to see people on welfare as fellow workers," she said.
She said, however, that as of yet, these are only "scattered pieces of information," and that the results are would not be concrete for several years.
